Saudi labour minister: Binladin crisis to be resolved

03 May 2016 - 11:58

RIYADH: The crisis surrounding major Saudi Arabian construction company Saudi Binladin Group, which has been struggling to pay its workers, will be resolved, Labour Minister Mufrej al-Haqbani said on Tuesday.
Haqbani, speaking at a business conference in Riyadh, said some Binladin workers would get their salaries this month, and some later. He did not say how Binladin would obtain the money to pay its staff.
Thousands of workers have not been paid for months, leading to work stoppages. The company has been hit by government spending cuts and by its supension from receiving new state contracts since September last year, when a crane accident killed 107 people at Mecca’s Grand Mosque.
On Monday, al-Watan newspaper reported that Binladin had laid off about 77,000 foreign workers and planned to cut thousands of jobs held by Saudi nationals. The company said workers it was laying off would receive proper confirmation but did not confirm those figures. REUTERS